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Rachel Berry
Rachel Barbara Berry 'is the captain of New Directions. She is sixteen years old, Jewish, and attends William McKinley High School. She is portrayed by Lea Michele In Lima, Ohio. Rachel is considered to be unpopular with most of the other students because she comes across as being self-involved and very controlling. She is typically very competitive and always wants to get the part that she thinks that fits her.She won She's most known for getting "slushied" in her face. Raised by two homosexual fathers, Hiram and Leroy, Rachel has recently discovered that her birth mother is Shelby Corcoran.She and her mother Shelby both like stars,in The Episode Journey, when Shelby gives Rachel a glass with a star on it,saying "Gold stars are kind of my thing". Rachel said in Pilot that she has been interested in the Performing Arts since she was three years old, and her signature is always followed with a gold star because she says 'stars are kinda my thing … it is a metaphor, and metaphors are important. My golden stars are a metaphor for me being a star. Biography She is an active member of the Glee Club, Speech Club, Mock United Nations Club, Renaissance Club, Muslim Students Club,retards club and Black Students Union (her father Hiram is assumed to be Jewish, and her father Leroy is African-American and a Muslim). Rachel is extremely talented and expresses it gratuitously. As a child, she took many lessons in the arts and she hope to become a star on Broadway. She also stated in an early episode that she won her first dance competition at 3 months old. She is rather unpopular in her school and often feels unappreciated by Mr. Schuester and the other members of Glee. She is active on MySpace,Pilot and is Jewish.Preggers. She's also a vegan, but she slips up and eats pepperoni in the episode "The Rhodes not Taken".Funk Season One Rachel is introduced in Pilot, in which she got the school's previous Glee teacher, Sandy Ryerson fired for inappropriately touching a male student. Right off the bat, Rachel's diva personality shines through as she details how she had won her first dance contest while still a baby. When Will Schuester holds auditions, Rachel performs the piece "On My Own" from Les Miserables, and as soon as she finishes singing, she promptly asks when rehearsals begin. Once rehearsals start, she immediately begins to grow weary on the minds and tempers of the others, becoming easily angered for not getting her way and for not having better music selections. However, she seems to lighten up when Finn Hudson joins. With his skilled singing abilities and good looks, Rachel finds herself immensely attracted to him. The big problem about her feelings towards him is that he is dating her arch-enemy Quinn Fabray. When Finn tries to leave the group, she works hard to convince him to stay, knowing that he really does like Glee but is afraid of being bullied by the rest of the school. In Showmance, Rachel begins to take a more active approach at trying to win over Finn. Rachel continues to try and do what she can to get Finn's attention, including inducing vomiting so as to become thinner, and joining the Celibacy Club. Neither works out for her. Later, when the Glee kids, ignoring Mr. Schuester's orders reject his song selection of "Le Freak" and instead perform the more extremely sexually driven song, "Push It", Rachel gets the group in trouble not only with the principal and Will, but it also results in Quinn joining the group along with Santana Lopez and Brittany. While helping him practice his singing, Rachel puts together a very over-the-top, but nonetheless romantic picnic for them to enjoy. This leads to them sharing their first kiss, which unfortunately gets Finn overexcited, and he prematurely ejaculates. Embarrassed and feeling guilty, Finn rushes off, leaving Rachel confused and hurt. Rachel's overbearing nature continues to cause a rift between her and Will in Acafellas, when she and the rest of the group criticize his choreography. This leads to him losing confidence and joining his own musical group, the Acafellas. Meanwhile Quinn convinces Rachel to get award winning choreographer, Dakota Stanley. Unfortunately his costs are $8,000 dollars per song. The glee kids get the money, but are soon horrified by how horrible Stanley is, who insults and rejects everyone in the group (save for the Cheerios) and attempts to kick them out of Glee for not looking like what he considers to be beautiful. This provokes the other kids to want to leave, but Rachel stops them and instead fires Stanley, while adding in that she's taller than he is. In Preggers,bitchel's diva-esque nature flares up when Will gives Tina Cohen-Chang the solo in "Tonight", from "West Side Story". Will tells Rachel the reason he gave the solo to Tina is that he wants to strengthen the confidence of the rest of Glee in anticipation of Regionals. She's upset that he is hurting her to make others feel good. Sue Sylvester finds out about Rachel's anger, and manipulating Principal Figgins, gets Sandy Ryerson rehired as the head of the arts department, which allows him to run the school musical, Cabaret. Sue has Sandy give Rachel the lead. With Will still refusing to give her the lead, Rachel quits Glee to join the musical. Unfortunately, the musical proves to be a less than enjoyable account for Rachel as seen in The Rhodes Not Taken. Under Sandy's control, the musical proves to be painful, as Sandy spends all his time insulting Rachel's talent, claiming he could do better. Meanwhile, Will has gotten a ringer to replace Rachel, April Rhodes, who was an old high school classmate and crush of Will's youth. Although talented, April is very irresponsible, teaching the Glee kids to drink and act up. April voices a sexual interest in the much younger Finn to Rachel, which infuriates her. Finn meanwhile attempts to get Rachel back in Glee, partly because of her talent and also because he misses her. This leads to their second kiss, which hurts Rachel when she realizes that Finn was manipulating her because he needs her help to win a scholarship in music, so that he has a future for himself and Quinn who is pregnant with their supposed baby. In the end however, Rachel unable to stand Sandy's directing and truly missing the group, she returns to Glee Club. In Vitamin D, Rachel and Finn come to odds, when Rachel discovers that during the mash-up competition between the boys and girls, the boys too performance enhancing pseudoephedrine (given to them by Terri Schuester) to energize them. In a move that disturbs Rachel herself, the girls take the same drug, giving a wildly energetic performance of "Halo/Walking on Sunshine". Afterwards, both of Finn and Rachel agree they were wrong to take the drugs, and come clean to Will. This however causes a massive backlash, getting Terri fired as the school nurse, and getting Glee a co-director: Sue Sylvester. Sue's reign as co-director causes immediate trouble in Throwdown, as Sue splits the kids up, taking all the minority students. However, while the minority students enjoy singing songs that speak to their backgrounds, they are not happy at being split up from the others. Meanwhile, Rachel, upon discovering Quinn's pregnancy, does what she can to keep the truth of the pregnancy hidden from school reporter Jacob Ben Israel, who has a massive crush on Rachel. She offers her underwear in exchange for his silence. Although Finn is touched, Quinn demands that Rachel stay away from Finn. Undeterred, Rachel warns Quinn that Sue will not side with her when the news of her pregnancy finally does come out, and that Rachel and the rest of the Glee Club, will be there for her. Rachel is proven right when Sue reveals that she is aware of the pregnancy. And just as Rachel promised, the Glee Club sings "Keep Holding On", promising to be there for Quinn no matter what. In Mash-Up, Rachel begins a short-lived relationship with former-foe Noah Puckerman who, after being convinced by his mom into finding a nice Jewish girl, begins to pursue her romantically. Rachel is touched by his sudden kind nature and a night of making out. Unfortunately, Puck begins to feel that dating Rachel is killing his reputation in school, but that he now understands how bad it can be for people like Rachel. However, Puck, unable to live his life like that, decides to return to the football team rather than be a social outsider. However, when Ken Tanaka makes the football players choose between the team and Glee, Puck returns to Glee. Rachel is again touched but quickly realizes that Puck is in love with Quinn and that she is still in love with Finn. They end their relationship, and when Rachel attempts an offer at friendship, Puck rejects her. Rachel's rivalry with Kurt Hummel begins to show itself, when Will gives her the solo in "Defying Gravity". Kurt, who loves the song, challenges the decision, and Will agrees to let them compete in a Diva-Off. The winner will sing the solo. Rachel is angered and scared at the idea, because she knows that the other kids will select Kurt because they like him more. Kurt however asks the kids to be fair in their selection, despite him being more popular and a better dresser. In the end, Kurt intentionally throws the competition, due to some personal issues involving his father. In Ballad, Rachel's romantic feeling shift from Finn to Will, upon doing a ballad with him. She begins to behave in an obsessively romantic fashion towards Will, buying him gifts and showing up at his house, where Terri manipulates her into doing housework. Will makes many attempts to get her to stop, but only until Suzy Pepper (another girl who once had a crush on Will) talked to her, Rachel realized how inappropriately she was behaving. In Hairography, Kurt continues his rivalry with Rachel when he manipulates Rachel with false advice on how to win over Finn. Openly insulting Rachel, he convinces her to take on a sultrier look (comparing her to the character Sandy in Grease). While the look does get Finn's attention, Finn admits that he preferred Rachel as she normally is. Rachel then confronts Kurt, who admits that they are both in love with Finn, and that as long as Quinn is in the picture, neither of them will ever have him. Rachel informs Kurt that her chances of being with Finn are better, because "I'm a girl" and Finn isn't gay. In the end, although not quite friends, both have bonded over their shared heartbreak. When the Glee Club gets it page taken away from the yearbook in Mattress, Rachel is the only one upset, wanting to have her glory and believing that other Glee kids feel the same way, when in reality, it is quite the opposite. Will gets them one half of a page, in which only the two captains of the club can be shown. The group unanimously elects Rachel alone. Will however, asks Rachel to convince someone else to be co-captain. When everyone else says no, she convinces Finn to take the picture with her. However, after being bullied by the football team, Finn doesn't show up, breaking Rachel's heart. However, Rachel manages to get the year book photographer to hire the Glee Club for a mattress commercial in which they sing "Jump". Unfortunately, the commercial takes away the kids' amateur status, making them unable to compete in Sectionals. It’s only when Will steps down as director that they are allowed to perform again. Finally, the kids reach Sectionals. Emma Pillsbury is selected by Will to take over as director and take the kids to the competition. Unfortunately with Will gone, they don't have their set list. Rachel offers one of her ballads, but Mercedes Jones, who is furious at Rachel always getting the spotlight, demands her own chance, which Emma supports. Mercedes sings a powerful ballad, which results in a standing ovation from the entire Glee, Rachel included. Rachel tells Mercedes that her performance was wonderful and concedes to let her sing the ballad, with the two sharing a hug. Meanwhile, Rachel begins to grow suspicious about Quinn's pregnancy, slowly realizing that Puck might be the father, not Finn. When she shares this information with the Glee Club, they disregard it awkwardly, because they all know that it’s true, but do not want to get involved in Finn, Quinn, and Puck's personal drama. Rachel, however, brings this theory up to Finn, who discovers that it's true. Furious, he breaks up with Quinn, breaks off his friendship with Puck and quits Glee. Rachel, who is guilty about her own selfish actions, talks to Quinn, expecting to get beaten up. Quinn admits that she's not angry at Rachel because Rachel did what she couldn't: tell the truth. At the competition, the Glee Club is horrified to discover that their rival schools stole their set-list and are performing all of their songs. The group agrees to do a new set-list, but only have an hour in to which prepare. Rachel, taking control, asks Mercedes to do a different ballad, but Mercedes admits that she has nothing else prepared and asks that Rachel step forward. With Finn's timely return, the group goes out to perform. Rachel sings "Don't Rain on My Parade", and with the rest of the group she performs "You Can't Always Get What You Want" and "Somebody to Love" (this last song is not seen performed on screen). In the end, the group wins Sectionals and Will comes back as their director, preparing for the next competition. In Hell-O, Rachel and Finn are now "sort of" dating, until Finn decides to connect with his inner rock star; he breaks up with her, leaving Rachel shocked and angry. This leads her to sing "Gives You Hell", directed at Finn. Mr. Schuester tells her this is not a "Hello" song for the assignment, so she goes to the library in search of a new song. There, she meets Jesse St. James, the male lead of Vocal Adrenaline, and the pair have immediate chemistry when they perform "Hello" by Lionel Richie. Rachel begins dating Jesse, which upsets New Directions and they want her out of the club if she doesn't break up with him because they think he is doing this to spy on their club for Regionals. She goes to Carmel High School, and asks Jesse if he is doing this for competition, and he denies it. Rachel asks Jesse to keep their relationship a secret, and he does so, but only to be looked on by Vocal Adrenaline's coach, Shelby Corcoran. When Finn tries to get back together with Rachel, she turns him down, and lies to him about her relationship with Jesse. When the Glee club performs "Hello Goodbye", she runs out on the performance, leaving Finn speechless. In Dream On, Rachel confides in Jesse of her lifelong dream to discover the identity of her biological mother. While they are searching through boxes of records from her basement, Jesse takes a tape from his jacket and pretends that it came from the box. The tape is labeled "From mother to daughter". Rachel refuses to listen to the tape, stating that she is not ready. Jesse later meets with Shelby in her car, where she reveals that she is Rachel's mother, but a contractual agreement prevents her from meeting with Rachel. She implores Jesse to convince Rachel to listen to the tape, stating that not being able to meet Rachel is her one regret. Shelby sings "I Dreamed a Dream" on the tape, leading to a duet with Rachel singing in a fantasy sequence. In Theatricality, Rachel finds out Shelby is her mother when she recognizes her voice after Shelby sings "Funny Girl". Shelby later meets with Rachel and says they should "be grateful for one another from afar", saying she is her mother but not her mom. Rachel asks Shelby to sing with her, and they sing "Poker Face" together, accompanied by Brad on the piano. In Funk, Rachel finds out Jesse was playing her the whole time. She and Jesse break up in the beginning of the episode when he announces he is returning to Vocal Adrenaline because he feels that New Directions didn’t respect him or his ideas. Rachel becomes extremely depressed and goes into an even deeper “funk” than the rest of the club. Near the end of the episode, Jesse calls her asking to meet in the parking lot. As she runs toward him, the rest of the Vocal Adrenaline members emerge from behind their Range Rovers and throw eggs at her. Jesse tells her he loved her and breaks the last egg on her forehead. The rest of New Directions are furious at them when they find out and respond by singing "Give Up the Funk" in front of Vocal Adrenaline putting them in a “funk.” In Journey, Rachel, along with most of the club, lose all hope of even placing in Regionals and are thrown into despair after learning that Sue Sylvester is part of the panel of judges. Finn later confronts her and encourages her to be more motivating as co-captain of the team and she kisses him. Right before their opening song, Finn confesses his love for Rachel and this adds to the emotional depth of their duet, "Faithfully". After their Journey medley, Rachel and New Directions are convinced that they will place or even win Regionals. Sadly, however, they end up coming in third despite the fact that Sue voted them for first place. Because of this, it is decided that New Directions will be disbanded as it is part of Mr. Schuester and Mr. Figgins's deal to place at Regionals in order to keep the program. Rachel, along with the club, perform the number, "To Sir, With Love", to show their appreciation for Mr. Schuester's devotion and to show that whatever the judges said, they still won because they had him. Sue Sylvester sees their performance and later convinces Figgins to give the program another year. When Will gives them the good news, Rachel is ecstatic and wants to start rehearsing for next year's sectionals. Will then performs "Over the Rainbow" and she is seen being affectionate with Finn, hinting that they are back together. Personality If Mercedes is considered a diva, Rachel could only be called the grandmother of them all. Overbearing, hyperactive, self-involved, egotistical and shrewd, Rachel can often come off as one of the more annoying girls in the Glee Club, something all the other members have said at one point or another. Since supposedly winning her first competition while still in diapers, Rachel's one true desire is to become a famous singing star and she has spent every moment of her life, obsessively going for that goal. Rachel is so energized by her ambition that she often speaks at a rapid pace, often without any tact to what she says. Rachel can also be manipulative in her actions, such as getting the previous glee teacher fired when she didn't get a solo and using the fact that she has two gay dads and therefore a connection to the civil rights union to force a business to get Finn hired for a waiting job. Ironically, she has difficulty seeing when other people are manipulating her, such as when Kurt gave her bad advice to gain Finn's attention. She is easily angered for not getting her way, and at such occasions, she will leave the room with a dramatic exit. (Though, as Artie once pointed out, they get less dramatic every time she does it) Yet despite her less than appealing tendencies, Rachel is not a bad person. Deep down, like so many other teens, she only wishes to be loved and to have friends. When others are hurting or feeling rejected, Rachel often is willing to come to their side and offer them help, even if the manner in which she does it, is less than smooth. Such an example being to offer Quinn her support and friendship, when she found out she was pregnant was kicked off the Cheerleading team, despite all the years of emotional torment. Rachel is a vegan, a fact revealed to fans in Funk before Vocal Adrenaline eggs her. (Although a minor error, she was seen eating pizza with pepperoni in the episode the Rhodes Not Taken. It was mentioned by Finn as he said: ''I think they import the pepperoni from, Michigan or something.) Rachel's romantic feelings towards certain people, like her core personality, can be somewhat scary. Upon meeting and singing with Finn for the first time, she became obviously enamored, causing Finn to become obviously fearful for his safety as she sang to him. However, despite her overbearing nature, Finn found himself attracted to her "Swim Fan" personality. Rachel also became attracted to Will at one point, after they sang a duet ballad together, and like Finn, Will became afraid, but for very different reasons. In Theatricality it is discovered that her mother is Shelby Corcoran, the coach of their rival show choir VA. Her mother, however, doesn't want anything to do with her (despite seeking her out earlier). Despite Rachel's diva personality, the members of New Directions care about her. When Jessie cracked an egg on her head, the club members were furious and even threatened to rip his face off. Relationships Noah "Puck" Puckerman Main article: Rachel-Puck Relationship They started dating because of Puck's mother's desire for him to date a girl who is Jewish and a mysterious dream. But Rachel ended the relationship because she still has feelings for Finn. She admitted that the reason she agreed to date him was because she thought it would make Finn jealous. Rachel then offered Puck to be friends again but Puck turned her down, claiming they had never been friends in the first place. Finn Hudson Main article: Rachel-Finn Relationship Finn and Rachel have an extremely complicated relationship. They are both talented singers and members of the Glee club. Once during practice they kissed for the first time. Their relationship however is complicated by the fact that Finn thinks that his girlfriend, Quinn, is pregnant with his child. They kissed a second time when Finn wanted to convince Rachel to rejoin the Glee Club. Rachel started dating Puck because she thought that it would make Finn jealous. Finn told Quinn that sometimes he wished she could be more like Rachel, looking out for others. But Finn seems loyal to Quinn now, leaving Rachel feeling hopeless about her wish to be his girlfriend. When Rachel discovers that Puck is the father of Quinn's baby, she shares this knowledge with Finn, who upon realizing it’s true, furiously breaks up with Quinn and temporarily quits Glee. He returns later and gains a small bit of comfort from Rachel, however neither makes an attempt at pursuing a relationship until later, in which Rachel claims them to be officially dating. Finn however is uneasy about the idea, as he is not quite over Quinn, and proceeds to end things with Rachel. After a disastrous 'date' with Santana Lopez and Brittany, he realizes that Rachel was the perfect girl for him, who understood him. However, Rachel had moved on and started dating Jesse St. James of Vocal Adrenaline, much to Finn's heartbreak. After Jesse had broken up with her, Rachel realized that Finn was really the one for her. Before their performance at Regionals in Journey Rachel told Finn to "break a leg" to which he responded with "I love you". It's led to believe this means that in Season 2 the pair will begin a relationship. Jesse St. James Main Article: Rachel-Jesse Relationship Jesse St. James is the popular lead male singer of Vocal Adrenaline. After Finn breaks up with Rachel (though they never officially had started dating), she ends up meeting Jesse while at the library. After dismissing her performance at Sectionals, he invites her out on a date, and the two quickly become a serious item, claiming to be 'in love'. The rest of New Directions, however, are uneasy about the relationship, believing Jesse to be a spy for their rival school. When Rachel tries to find this out for herself, Jesse claims it not be true. However, when Rachel refuses to have sex with Jesse, he drops out of his old school and moves to his uncle's so he can transfer to McKinley and be with Rachel, and join the Glee Club. It is interesting to note that the leader of Vocal Adrenaline gave Jesse a look which presumably meant to stay with Rachel to not blow his cover. Later, Rachel looks through boxes of her childhood and infant memorabilia in search of the identity of her birth mother. What she doesn't notice is the fact that the tape that she uses to identify her mother, Shelby Corcoran, does not come from the many boxes but from Jesse's shirt pocket. This is later addressed when Jesse climbs into Shelby's car, proving that he wasn't there as a spy for Vocal Adrenaline, but to lead Rachel into finding her birth mother. Jesse confesses to Ms. Corcoran that, while originally he developed a relationship with Rachel to hone his acting abilities, he is in love with her. This is later revoked in Funk when he and the Vocal Adrenaline team publicly humiliate and sabotage Rachel. Songs *On My Own - (Pilot) *Take a Bow - (Showmance) *Taking Chances - (Preggers) *Cabaret - (The Rhodes Not Taken) *What a Girl Wants - (Mash Up) *Crush - (Ballads) *Don't Rain On My Parade - (Sectionals) *Gives You Hell - (Hell-O) *The Climb - (Laryngitis) *...Baby One More Time - (Britney/Brittany) Trivia *Jonathan Groff and Lea Michele starred as the original leads in the Tony award winning Broadway musical Spring Awakening together and played the roles of friends who turn into epic lovers. In real life the pair are extremely close and have been best friends since they met. It was even Jonathan Groff who actually introduced Lea to Glee creator Ryan Murphy who wrote the part of Rachel with her in mind. Fans of Spring Awakening shipped for Jonathan to guest in Glee as a love interest for Lea's character Rachel and succeeded when he was cast as Jesse St. James who would become her character's first serious boyfriend. *Broadway fans also heavily campaigned for the role of Rachel's biological mother to be played by fellow Broadway singer and legend Idina Menzel straight from the show's first episode due to their uncanny similar appearance. Lea and Idina had met through Broadway before and is one of Lea's idols. Lea has said that she has been told her entire life how much she looks like Idina who is also a fellow New Yorker. *Due to Lea Michele's use of hair extensions her character Rachel's hair will often change length dramatically in a supposed amount of time on the show. It will sometimes have 'grown' 'got shorter' and then be longer than ever all in the same episode which never generally spans more time than a week. *Rachel once had a crush on Will Schuester, like Suzy Pepper. Rachel and Suzy both have surnames named after plants (Rachel Berry and Suzy Pepper) *Lea has known Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina Cohen-Chang) since she was 8 years old. Quotations References Category:Characters Category:New Directions members Category:Main characters Category:William McKinley High School Students Category:Jewish Characters Category:New Directions Category:Singers